Long Pond/3

More waterfowl at Long Pond, Presque Isle State Park:

Male Northern Shoveler w/ Mallards in background
Mallards in flight (male on right)
Northern Shoveler (f, left) & Male Northern Pintail (right)
Male Mallard landing
American Widgeons in flight
Male Northern Shoveler x2
Ring-necked Ducks in flight
Male Mallard landing II
Northern Shovelers II
Male Ring-necked Duck in flight
Northern Shovelers III
Male Ring-necked Duck in flight II
Northern Shovelers IV
Shovelers landing
Widgeons in flight II
Male Gadwall in flight

Coming up soon, giant pigeons in the big woods!

Long Pond/2

Back to Long Pond the other weekend at Presque Isle State Park, featuring (of course) birds, birds, and more birds. #more_bird

Male Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail (m, 2nd from left), + Malards
American Widgeon
Male Northern Shovelers
Song Sparrow
Ring-necked Ducks in flight
Male Northern Shovelers II
Male and female Northern Shovelers in flight
Ring-necked Ducks in flight
Widgeons II
Male Northern Shovelers III
Shovelers in flight II
Male Ring-necked Duck
Mallards landing
Widgeons III
Mallards Landing II

Current weather conditions in Erie County: cold, overcast, & snow 🙁 As reported by BirdingPI.com’s associate editor currently in the SF Bay Area, current weather conditions: clear, sunny, & in the 80’s deg F 🙂

The Snake/1

The other evening in Erie County, Pennsylvania, spotted an American Kestrel perched on a power line over a corn field. Seemed to have a piece of cord or rope in its talon. Long story short, turns out the ‘cord’ was a live snake, probably a garter snake.

After flying to a different, nearby power line, the Kestrel proceeded to peck at the snake, presumably the head end:

Coming up reasonably soon, down the hatch!

Ducks @ Long Pond

No post yesterday due to field operations in ‘exotic locations.’ More on this next week. Meanwhile, in today’s post, it’s all Ring-necked Duck flying over/near Long Pond at Presque Isle State Park last Sunday afternoon:

Sunrise

Sunrise at Fairview Business Park

The big birding event in Erie County, Pennsylvania last week was surely the rare occurrence of 7 super cute Ross’s Geese at Fairview Business Park on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, no BirdingPI.com staff members were on hand. A team was dispatched first thing Saturday morning, but as the saying goes, “a day late and a dollar short.” Nevertheless, it was a beautiful morning. (To see the Ross’s Geese, here’s an exemplary eBird checklist from local birding enthusiast Jackson M. eBird checklist.)

Canada Geese depart at sunrise
Canada Geese and Mallards @ Lake Melvin
Canada Goose w/ distant thunderheads
Gull w/ sunrise
Canada Geese landing
Hooded Mergansers (male on left, female on right)
Ring-necked Ducks
Ring-necked Ducks (l) + Mallards (r)
Male Hooded Merganser

Distant Harrier

Just a super quick post today from a beautiful day Sunday afternoon on Lond Pond at Presque Isle State Park, where the duck activity was amazing, esp. Northern Shoveler and Ring-necked Duck.

Long Pond

Even with all the duck activity, however, the “bird of the day” was a distant but nice sighting of Northern Harrier flying along the north side Long Pond woods: